How Can We Nurture Creativity Inside the Classroom

By Hannah Wheatley

Creativity feels like such a broad term, but ultimately it is defined as involving “originality, imagination, and a process of both thinking and producing.” For me, these are the fundamentals of an elementary classroom, teaching children the key skills to flourish both academically and socially. Creativity does not mean perfection; it is instead a moment to celebrate individuality, expression and wonder, and, to me, those elements are exactly what teaching, and more importantly, a fun, engaging and inspiring classroom looks like.

When children can play, experiment, and take risks in a safe space, they unlock skills and understanding that they may otherwise never discover. One quote that has stood out to me throughout my career and research is from educator Maria Montessori, “The goal of early childhood education should be to activate the child’s own natural desire to learn.” This goal should stretch far beyond early education, and as teachers, we are fortunate enough to facilitate the environments and activities that encourage these learning opportunities.

Whilst creativity is often associated with artistic outcomes, it is essential in nearly every field that our students eventually find their futures in, as it encompasses the ability to innovate and produce novel and valuable ideas. Therefore, it is important to see how we can nurture and encourage in the school environment.

Prior to becoming a teacher, I trained and worked as an actress and dancer, in this time I saw how play, movement, and expression can nurture confidence, collaboration, and joy. These insights later shaped my approach to teaching, particularly in the Early Years, where play forms the heartbeat of learning. Lev Vygotsky emphasized the value of imaginative play, wherein activities such as tower-building or water play are not “just play.”They are opportunities for children to developseveral social, emotional, and cognitive skills including:

These moments highlight how creativity functions as a starting point for curiosity and intrinsic motivation within the child.

Nurturing creativity across elementary allows for these principles to extend far beyond the continuous provision and play-based approach seen in the Early Years. Across all year groups, effective classrooms are those rich in imagination, expression, and discovery, places where children feel confident to take bold risks and find joy in learning. English and drama lessons provide the more obvious avenues for this kind of creative learning. Picture books, for example, allow children to develop their own worlds, characters, and settings. dramatic techniques, such as hot seating, conscience alleys, or role on the wall, animate characters making them vivid and relatable, and in turn encourage richer and more imaginative writing.

But the same spirit lives in science experiments where students design their own investigations, or in math lessons where we consistently ask for the why and how. When we give children the freedom and the support to reflect constructively, they learn not only subject content but confidence, adaptability, and ownership of their learning journey.

Allowing open dialogue and discussion ensures that the interests of the child are what inspires future learning, including:

Beyond school, families and communities can nourish creativity by encouraging exploration, unstructured time, and opportunities for children to share passions, whether that’s cooking, coding, gardening, or performing. Lifelong learning grows strongest when curiosity is a shared value between school and home.

Ultimately, creativity teaches children how to think, connect, and grow. It invites them to see mistakes as opportunities, questions as discoveries, and learning as an adventure that never truly ends. Learning flourishes in environments filled with joy, empathy, and possibility because when creativity forms the foundation, learning itself becomes a lifelong act of curiosity and wonder.